It's Not Always About You

This lesson is a hard one to really sink in, perhaps because the "ego" tends to only value things that involve oneself.  And indeed, some (many?) people are so bored when things don't directly involve them that they stir up trouble, just to make sure that they are back in the centre of attention.  Hmm, does that sound like anyone you know in your life (or who is in the news a lot)?

At any rate, I was walking to the store when I stumbled across a sign in my neighbour's front yard.

I thought about it for a bit, and then wondered if it could possibly be a reference to the Little Free Library I finally finished, which is of course unstaffed.

Very few people have a beef with them, though there are actually a couple of "radical librarians" in Toronto who do argue that the LFL system supports a neoliberal agenda.  However, it is only a very small minority who actually think that these book exchanges actually could or should replace libraries.  Certainly no one in Riverdale would think such a thing.

But more to the point, I was getting myself worked up that the Toronto librarian union would actually set up a campaign to encourage people to plant these signs whenever a Little Free Library popped up.  That seemed to be taking it pretty far, but I certainly hadn't seen these signs anywhere else and it seemed like quite a coincidence that it went up roughly a week after my Little Free Library was open.

Fortunately, I took a step back from getting into a beef with my neighbour.  I did some internet research, and in fact it was a complete coincidence and the sign has nothing to do with me at all.

Starting in 2017, Toronto was considering a pilot to extend the hours at two underserved libraries by making them staffless.  Essentially, the premises would be electronically monitored (by librarians elsewhere, who presumably still had other work to do) and the public would have to sign a waiver in case anything happened to them.  This sounds like an absolutely terrible idea for all kinds of reasons beyond the impact on staff.  As it turns out, the city has gone ahead with this pilot at Todmorden Room and Swansea Branches, and they will evaluate it for a year (or more likely until someone is hurt or causes major damage to the untended books).  Not surprisingly, the union is aghast and is just ramping up a campaign against staffless libraries, so I should expect to see more of these signs on more streets (and not merely ones with Little Free Libraries) in the near future.

I'm not pleased to learn about this initiative, but I am relieved to know that (this time) it wasn't personal...